Errkal wrote:Saw someone at a boot sale today walking about with a SNES Super Mario All Stars boxed console under his arm, there are buggers at all these that go round as people set up asking for games or consoles so no doubt someone got conned out of it.

Probably someone who worked at a local indie game shop or something picking up stock for cheap to sell for three or four times the price.

I suspect it will be ebayed. They seem to get a good few quid in there.

Car boot sales used to be great for video game (and vinyl!) finds in the late 90s but now I hardly ever go to them as you rarely find anything gaming-related that is worth getting. eBay has made things easier to find but also driven up costs substantially. I think the last game I got at a boot fair was about ten years ago when I spotted spotted OutRun on the Mega Drive in amongst the junk; it was in great condition and a snip at (IIRC) three quid.

My best ever gaming bargain wasn't from a boot sale, it was a factory sealed copy of Blue Shadow on NES for £6 in Poundstretcher in the mid 90's. It was in a bargain bin of assorted VHS tapes so I'm assuming they didn't really know what it was.

IAmTheSaladMan wrote:My best ever gaming bargain wasn't from a boot sale, it was a factory sealed copy of Blue Shadow on NES for £6 in Poundstretcher in the mid 90's. It was in a bargain bin of assorted VHS tapes so I'm assuming they didn't really know what it was.

I bought Zero Wing on the Megadrive (before it became the stuff of memes) for £5 from a Poundstretcher type shop called What Everyone Wants.

It was just randomly sitting on a shelf of assorted tat and was the only game they seemed to have on sale.

The best bargain I'd ever got was a bag of US SNES Carts and one of the terrible grey converter cartridges (the one where you'd have to put a PAL game on one of slots.) Must of been 8-10 games with the highlights being Contra III, Legend of the Mystical Ninja, Secret of Mana, Zombies and some of the lowlights Dragon's Lair, Dino City and a couple of others all for £15.

Everyone these days seem to know what they have and bargains are few and far between, I find.

Last edited by Miguel007 on Wed Apr 19, 2017 7:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.

IAmTheSaladMan wrote:My best ever gaming bargain wasn't from a boot sale, it was a factory sealed copy of Blue Shadow on NES for £6 in Poundstretcher in the mid 90's. It was in a bargain bin of assorted VHS tapes so I'm assuming they didn't really know what it was.

I bought Zero Wing on the Megadrive (before it became the stuff of memes) for £5 from a Poundstretcher type shop called What Everyone Wants.

It was just randomly sitting on a shelf of assorted tat and was the only game they seemed to have on sale.

Nice, little side note What Everyone Wants in Blackpool was the first place I ever played a SNES... Joe and Mac if memory serves.

I have one of those SNES region adapters and it is indeed ridiculous. Unfortunately there's no way around it without cutting holes in the SNES and modding it, but I think there are some low profile adapters available (I think 1 guy was making them) for that purpose (NTSC on modded PAL).

Green Gecko wrote:I have one of those SNES region adapters and it is indeed ridiculous. Unfortunately there's no way around it without cutting holes in the SNES and modding it, but I think there are some low profile adapters available (I think 1 guy was making them) for that purpose (NTSC on modded PAL).

That old rickety grey region adapter was terrible, it would move about something rotten and sometimes lose connection midway through a game. I had to use paper and cardboard to wedge the carts into the slots without them wobbling about and then if it would work at all was a total lottery.

I bought a Modded Region Free 50/60 Hz enabled SNES from Console Passion because of it - it's been one of the best things I've ever bought. It was pricey but well done and worth it.

Oh yes. I've only seen the machine on a single occasion - in one of the old Dixons branches - and it looked so neat. It was amazing to think that Sega crunched down the Mega Drive and Mega CD into such a lovely, streamlined design. The price point of circa £380 in 1994 was a bit of a killer, though... that is equivalent to just under £700 today!